


Bilingual

by femmedefoi



Series: Wolfstar Challenge Prompts [3]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: French!Sirius, M/M, Remus Lupin Needs a Hug, Remus is tired, Sirius Black is a Good Friend, Sirius is stressed, The boys are bilingual, We end up fluffy so it's alright tho, Welsh!Remus, but neither one knows
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-28
Updated: 2020-09-28
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:21:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26702101
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/femmedefoi/pseuds/femmedefoi
Summary: Sirius Black is NOT having a good day. Neither is Remus Lupin, for that matter.Tempers flare the night before the full moon, and the boys each learn a little bit more about the other that they didn't know before.
Relationships: Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Series: Wolfstar Challenge Prompts [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1943122
Comments: 10
Kudos: 151





	Bilingual

**Author's Note:**

  * For [etymolodrarry](https://archiveofourown.org/users/etymolodrarry/gifts).



* * *

Sirius Black was decidedly _not_ in a good mood when he came back from Quidditch practice, a fact which was noted by most members of Gryffindor house when he burst through the doorway and slammed the portrait. The common room went silent, Sirius’ footsteps echoing ominously as he stormed up the stairs to the Boys’ dorms. 

He paused at the top, quivering with fury before turning around and surveying the room below him. “What,” he bit out menacingly, “do you think you’re looking at?” A few second-years who had dared to make eye contact with him immediately looked away, and hesitant chatter broke out among the groups of studying fifth-year students. Rolling his eyes, Sirius turned on his heel and barged through the doorway, clenching his fist and muttering under his breath as he did so. 

Remus had been in the library when he left, and Peter and James--fucking _James_ \-- were still at the pitch, so Sirius expected he’d have the dorm room to himself. He entered the room without paying much attention to the surroundings, heading straight for his trunk to shed his uniform and shower. As he undressed, his mind wandered to the practice that was still ongoing down at the pitch. He’d been pulled aside by James and given a “polite suggestion” to take the rest of the night off. Sirius was furious. 

Turning on the water, he stepped into the shower and winced at the cold spray as it ran down his back. If _James_ hadn’t told him to lay off McKinnon while they were practicing, none of this would’ve happened. Who did he think he was? It’s not like Sirius was _trying_ to hurt Marlene...not intentionally at least. He just needed to blow off steam after the letter from his mother, James knew that. And even then, it’s not as if he didn’t get his comeuppance when the second bludger nearly knocked him off his broom moments after he’d sent one spiraling towards his teammate. His ribcage was still pulsing from that impact, but Sirius found the aching tattoo of pain sobering as he blew out deep breaths to calm himself. 

By the time he had toweled off, his anger had diminished slightly. Sirius could still feel it simmering just below the surface, but he wasn’t in the mood to throw things anymore, which was a win, he supposed. He began walking back to the dorm and winced, for the first time looking down at the injury caused by the bludger. There was a nasty bruise, one that had already turned a delightful black-ish blue shade, and a visible welt. As he took another deep breath, Sirius realized that he likely should’ve gone to Madame Pomfrey before returning to the dorms, but he’d been so angry that he hadn’t even noticed where his feet led him until he arrived at the portrait. 

He entered the dorm, curses flowing freely as he made his way to his trunk for clean clothes. He’d just managed to pull on a pair of pants when he heard the door behind him open, and caught the last phrases of a conversation as it floated up the stairs. 

“Whatever you say, McDonald,” a familiar voice called out before Sirius heard his boyfriend’s footsteps abruptly pause at the doorway. “Sirius?”

Sirius turned quickly, too quickly, and grabbed the bedpost for support as his vision threatened to give out in protest of the pain radiating from his ribs. Remus stood in the doorway, concern evident in his features. Sirius closed his eyes for a moment, willing the pain to ebb a bit before he moved again. When he opened them, Remus was directly in front of him, golden eyes looking down into his own with thinly veiled anxiety. A thought briefly crossed Sirius’ mind,-- _the full moon was tomorrow, wasn’t it?_ \--before Remus grabbed his forearm in a gentle grip to steady him. 

“Sirius...What happened?” Remus spoke, the words falling out of his mouth softly as he appraised the dark-haired boy in front of him. 

“Nothing,” Sirius said sharply, bending to grab a shirt from his bed and biting back a groan. Remus raised an eyebrow in disbelief as his boyfriend tore himself from his grip to tug a shirt over his obviously bruised form with violent movements that couldn’t have done his injury any favors. 

Sirius sighed. “It was just...It was a Quidditch accident, alright?” Remus narrowed his eyes. 

“We were playing a bit rougher than usual and I lost focus for a few minutes and one of the bludgers came by for a little rendez-vous, okay? Like I said, nothing.” Sirius turned angrily towards Remus and was shocked to see an expression of disgust on his face. A thick silence settled between the two as Remus abruptly turned on his heel to pace around the dormitory. 

“Sirius. That could’ve killed you,” Remus ground out tightly. “As it is, your ribs look half broken--if you had fallen from that height…” he trailed off before running a slightly-trembling hand through his hair in frustration. “How could you have been so stupid? You swore that you’d stop getting yourself into dangerous situations after last year,” he paused. 

“You _swore_ you’d stop being reckless.” Remus’ expression was a challenge, and Sirius was in no mood to back down. The part of his mind that usually warned him to steer clear of these types of conversations with Remus shut down as the rage that had been so evident upon his return to the common room came back in full force. 

“Reckless,” Sirius began, his voice dangerously low and even. “You think I’m being _reckless_? And for what reason, Remus? Just to dick about and have some fun? After everything that happened last year, this summ--” he stopped hastily, before pivoting in his diatribe.

“You really don’t think I’m capable of laying low, do you?” 

Remus snorted derisively, “Forgive me if my expectations are low, _Padfoot_ , but you don’t exactly have the best track record.”

Sirius froze. Remus had always been hesitant to refer to any of the Marauders by their nicknames, it was too painful of a reminder of his own condition. The insinuation of Sirius’ irresponsibility came through, clear as day, and Sirius felt a sharp pain pass through his stomach that had nothing to do with the bludger’s impact. His gaze hardened and he took a step forward, ignoring the protesting of his ribs.

“Ça fait plus d'un mois que tu cherches mes limited et j'en eu ma dose! _*_.” He began, locking eyes with Remus as he approached. 

“Mais vous ne m'écoutez pas. Vous ne m'écoutez jamais! Vous disez que je ne fais que des choses dangereuses, que je ne réfléchis pas? Évidemment que je ne réfléchis pas, tu t'attends à quoi d'autre ma part?**”

Remus paled, unfamiliar with the language, and even more unfamiliar with this side of Sirius, volatile and dangerous.

“I…” he faltered for a moment before drawing himself up to his full height and continuing. “I don’t know what you’re saying, Sirius, but it doesn’t change the fact that you promised to be better this yea--”

Sirius cut him off with a snarl.

“C'est si dur pour vous? De _tout_ comprendre _en_ cours? D'être _meilleur_ que nous? J'y pense souvent, tu sais--est-ce que vous vous croyez meilleur que nous?***” At this he paused and turned around to face the window, before raising his voice. 

“Putain de merde, Remus. Tout le monde ne peut pas se permettre d'être comme vous, un gentil petit saint. Je suis bien obligé d'êter téméraire, sinon comment est-ce-que je suis supposé survive dans un maison comme la mienne?****” 

With this exclamation, Sirius began approaching Remus again, looking frantic and furious, all sound and fury. He lowered his voice to a hiss before walking right up to his boyfriend and looking up into his eyes. 

“Je vous emmerdez. J'emmerde tout ça. Je ne suis pas d'humeur pour ces conneries, pas aujourd'hui. On reparlera demain.*****”

And with that final word, Sirius Black stormed back out of the Gryffindor common room the way that he came. 

* * *

“French, you say?” James queried as he threw on a sweatshirt and moved towards the bathroom.

“Sounded like it to me,” Remus shot back, chewing on a quill in agitation while he sat in his bed. 

“I know he learned it at home, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard him speak it,” James mused. “I always thought it reminded him of his family, and given all that’s gone on...I just assumed he never spoke it here out of spite for them.”

“Mm,” Remus offered up non-committally, wondering what caused Sirius to go off the way he did. A few minutes passed before James returned from a bathroom with a revelation about their still absent friend. 

“He got a letter from home today, that could’ve gotten him thinking about it. You know how he gets when he hears from his family. He was all out of sorts when he was at practice today, it’s why I sent him off early. He took a nasty blow from a bludger, and I thought it best that he go see Pomfrey instead of staying any longer on the pitch.” 

James paused, looking at Remus curiously as he climbed into his own bed. “Speaking of Pomfrey, Moony, how are you feeling?”

Remus sighed, holding his palms up over his eyes and letting out a long, measured exhale before rotating to face his friend. 

“Been better. I’ve been jittery all day, switching off between freezing and sweating in all of my classes. I expect that I’d slip into a fever even if I spent the evening in the hospital wing, so,” he paused, before turning back to his parchment and scribbling a note on the side of it. 

“I don’t have much hope for a restful night.”

James frowned at his friend, “If you need anything, you know you can wake us, right?”

Remus smiled thinly, closing his eyes and tilting his head back to lean against the wall. “Yeah James, I know.”

“Just wanted to make sure you remembered,” James smirked, before removing his spectacles and rolling himself into his blankets easily. Within minutes, both he and Peter were asleep, Remus noted. Peter’s arm hung out over the edge of the bed, and James’ face was buried in his pillow, only slightly masking his gentle snore. Remus smiled, before turning back to his parchment and hastily scribbling down a few more words that he remembered Sirius saying hours earlier. 

Somewhere between one and two in the morning, Remus felt himself drifting off to sleep but fought to keep his eyes open, still waiting for Sirius to return. The map was gone from James’ trunk, the other three roommates discovered when they all convened. Sirius could be anywhere on the grounds, who knew when he’d be back. Remus fell into an uneasy sleep, shivering as a fever overtook his tall frame. 

* * *

Sirius stormed around the parapets of the castle, angry at Remus, James, his parents, the world--for hours at end. He’d muttered vulgar phrases in French until he’d almost forgotten their English equivalents before finding himself in the astronomy tower. The moon offered a cruel reminder of his boyfriend in the dormitories below, of the words he said, unknowingly echoing the tone of his mother, his father, his brother. 

Sirius had read plenty in his letter to turn his stomach. He’d thought that being burned off of the tapestry meant that he would no longer be told off, but he was wrong. Walburga Black offered no sympathy for her former son upon his disowning, not that she had done so while he still resided with her. The letter was full of vitriolic lines about his character, his worthlessness as a wizard, and his lack of reliability. After 17 years, Sirius thought he was fully immune to his mother’s words, but it was different to hear them knowing he couldn’t return home, even if he wanted to (and he _knew_ he didn’t want to). 

By the time Sirius arrived at practice, he was out of sorts. Barely paying attention to James’ directions, Sirius flew aimlessly, striking the bludger whenever it approached him, but without direction or intent. It was on his third pass at Marlene McKinnon that James called him aside to speak with him about heading out early. James hadn’t gotten all of the words out before Sirius kicked off and took to the skies again. Shaking his head, James went up to follow his friend, hoping that the game would settle down a bit. It didn’t, and minutes later, James was practically forcing a bent-over Sirius to go see Madame Pomfrey. 

Sirius sat at the top of the castle for hours after his argument with Remus, whispering expletives and conjuring a set of rubber balls for him to throw blindly out of the tower. His shoulder ached by the time he was through with the magicked items, so he sat down, wincing as he did so, and stared unseeingly out at the forest as he reviewed the conversation in his mind. French was his first language, and he hated it. All of the formalities and gendered nouns and adjectives...He only ever spoke it at home, and even then, only when he was utterly furious. Sirius hadn’t even noticed that he’d slipped into it when he was in the dorm, not until he’d used up all of his energy on launching things onto the grounds below and finally began mulling over his previous words. 

After sitting there for what seemed like an hour of consideration, Sirius came to a single conclusion: _Remus hadn’t deserved any of what he had said._

He sighed heavily and stood up, making his way back to the dorms, where an apology needed to occur. 

* * *

It was 2:30 in the morning when Sirius finally crept into the dorm room, quietly so as not to wake his roommates. The room was dark, and as Sirius caught a glint of the moonlight in James’ spectacles, he smirked at his friend, dead to the world in sleep. He began moving to pass Remus’ bed to reach his own when he heard a quiet noise from beneath the blankets. Sirius looked towards his boyfriend but saw no obvious source of the noise, and he continued on towards his own bed, getting increasingly tired with each step. 

He had just climbed into bed when he heard it again. A mumble, a bit clearer this time, and quite plainly coming from Remus, who was shivering, Sirius suddenly noticed. He tilted himself back out of bed and approached Remus’ space cautiously.

“Remus? Is everything alright?” he offered gently, not wanting to frighten the boy, but hoping to help all the same. 

“Dylech chi gysgu*,” Remus slurred, and Sirius stood straight up, startled by the Welsh words coming from his boyfriend’s mouth. He supposed it made sense, after all. Remus _had_ grown up in the countryside outside of Cardiff. It was still jarring, however, especially when his boyfriend continued in a voice that spoke to more of a nightmare than a casual dream. 

“Doeddwn i...Doeddwn i ddim yn golygu ei wneud**,” Remus said in a terrified voice, and Sirius bent down to hear better, bringing his head so close to Remus’ that he could feel his breath coming in fevered pants.

Sirius felt his heart clench, never before had he wanted to understand another language more than as he heard Remus whimper with fear in his sleep. He had tried to learn a few phrases as a child but had been reprimanded sharply after he’d come down to breakfast one morning shouting “I love you, Reg” in Welsh, and hadn’t thought much of the language since. Sirius cursed that decision internally as he surveyed his boyfriend’s uneasy sleep. He placed a hand on Remus’ forehead to brush the errant curls from the boy’s eyes and was shocked at the frigid temperature. He pulled back for a moment, watching his boyfriend shiver, before pulling back the covers and climbing in behind him.

Immediately met with his boyfriend’s chilled form, Sirius stiffened, but then relaxed into the position, pulling Remus’ body closer to him with one arm while the other slid under his boyfriend’s neck. Remus shifted a bit as Sirius settled himself, nestling into Sirius’ warm body and mumbling some more in Welsh as he began to regain awareness. 

“Ddrwg ‘da fi***,” Remus began, with a slight stumble over the vowels as his boyfriend held him tighter. Sirius looked at the boy in his arms and smiled gently, carding a hair through Remus’ hazel curls and humming a lullaby quietly to ease his boyfriend back into sleep. 

“Shhh Rem. It’s alright. Go back to sleep.You’re safe here, I’ve got you. I’ve got you. I’ve got you,” he murmured over and over again into Remus’ curls, punctuating each phrase with a gentle kiss.

Remus’ breathing evened out, and Sirius relaxed into their cozied position, with a whispered “there we are” as he let the tension leave his body for the first time that day. He nuzzled into Remus’ neck, and was drifting off when he heard one last mumble from his boyfriend. 

“Dw i’n caru ti, Siri.****” Sirius froze at his name. And then at the phrase--the only one he knew in the entire language. He snuggled closer to Remus, sighing in contentment as he smelled the parchment and chocolate scent that clung to his boyfriend. A whispered “I love you too” ghosted across Remus’ ear as he descended into a night of restorative sleep, his first before a full moon in years. 

When Remus awoke, he smelled Sirius in his bed. He turned over to look for his boyfriend, but found no one there. He looked around and noticed that the sun was halfway through the sky, streaming down in shafts onto the floor of the dormitory. Yawning, he glanced at his bedside table and froze at the sight of a bar of chocolate resting atop his parchment from the night before. 

As he sat up to reach for it, he noticed an elegant scrawl next to his own nearly illegible scribbles. 

_“Sorry about last night._

_A letter came from my mother and it had been weighing on me all day. You didn’t deserve the harshness I gave you, you never do. Forgive me? I’m not too shy to beg, y’know. The chocolate was only the first step—I have six others that I can go through if you’re unwilling at the moment._

_I didn’t want to wake you when I got up, because I figured you needed the rest and you looked too cute to disturb anyway. Don’t worry about your classes today, James and I have got it covered. Just relax, we’ll see you later tonight._

_\- Sirius_

_P.S. Your French spelling could use some work, Moony. I’ve corrected your notes in the margins on the other side of this parchment._

_P.P.S. I love you too, you wonderfully ridiculous Welshman.”_

* * *

**TRANSLATION TIME:**

**_Sirius (French):_ **

*You’ve been testing my nerves for over a month and I’m finished

**But you don’t listen. You never listen to me! You say I’m doing dangerous things, that I'm not thinking? Of course I'm not, what else do you expect of me?

***Is it difficult for you? Understanding all the classes? Being better than us? I think about that a lot-- _do_ you think you’re better than us?

****Fucking hell, Remus. Not everyone can afford to be a saint like you. I have to be reckless, how did you expect me to survive in my house otherwise?

*****Fuck you. Fuck all of this. I can’t deal with this bullshit, not today. We’ll talk tomorrow.

**_Remus (Welsh):_ **

*You should sleep

**I didn’t...I didn’t mean to.

***I’m sorry

****I love you, Siri

**Author's Note:**

> Back again with part 3!
> 
> Written for the prompt: "Character A finds out something that they didn't know about Character B"
> 
> Enjoy!


End file.
